Welcome to the COPS VOTER GUIDE website. WIth over 20 years of experience working with public safety, I understand the importance of keeping our neighborhoods, homes and families safe from crime.

The COPS VOTER GUIDE is a non-partisan, public advocacy organization. Each election year, millions of voters receive our voter guides in the mail and online.

The candidates we support have pledged to make public safety a top priority and work with law enforcement to protect our safety. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Kelley Moran
Director

Wait, wait — these guys wrote me, didn’t they?

Let me see if I can find the message.

Yes, here it is, on March 22:

Dear Jim,

The deadline for inclusion on the June 5th Primary Election COPS VOTER GUIDE is rapidly approaching. In less than 50 days our COPS VOTER GUIDES will begin reaching thousands of voters in your district.

COPS VOTER GUIDE is targeting high-propensity independent households to maximize the effectiveness of our endorsements. We are recognized as a leader in helping to win candidate and ballot measure campaigns.

Complete the online Candidate Form or give us a call at (916) 485-5888 and we will provide you with all of the information you need to be featured on the COPS VOTER GUIDE and COPS California Vote by Mail Voter Guide.

Two-for-One: Voters can read more about our endorsed candidates and link their websites at our Pollie Award winning website: COPSVOTERGUIDE.com

Targeting to frequent voters in all categories including Vote by Mail voters

Cost-efficient, candidate specific text

Award winning full-color design and production

Payment by check or credit card

We look forward to working with you toward a successful election.

Sincerely,

Kelley M. Moran
Publisher

Why, this is one of those pay-to-play endorsements that I have been complaining about here, isn’t it? “Cost-efficient,” “check or credit card” — why, they’re not actually endorsed by cops here, they just bought it!

They took a pledge? What was the pledge: “don’t worry, the check will clear”? “Jail every cop in the area”?

Anyway, since Fullerton has the most controversial election coming up, I just looked at Fullerton.

I’m just, let’s say, quite struck by the statements here by Kiger, Levinson, and the pro-recall forces. I tend to distrust candidates whose election strategy depends on voters being lazy and ill-informed. Well, maybe they’ll be lucky and nobody will write an article on it that Fullerton voters might see.

Meanwhile, check out your own city’s candidates — you can search by zip code — and let us know anything interesting you see in a comment!

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose worker's rights and government accountability attorney, residing in northwest Brea. General Counsel of CATER, the Coalition of Anaheim Taxpayers for Economic Responsibility, a non-partisan group of people sick of local corruption.
Deposed as Northern Vice Chair of DPOC in April 2014 when his anti-corruption and pro-consumer work in Anaheim infuriated the Building Trades and Teamsters in spring 2014, who then worked with the lawless and power-mad DPOC Chair to eliminate his internal oversight.
Occasionally runs for office to challenge some nasty incumbent who would otherwise run unopposed. (Someday he might pick a fight with the intent to win rather than just dent someone. You'll know it when you see it.) He got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012 and in 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002.
None of his pre-putsch writings ever spoke for the Democratic Party at the local, county, state, national, or galactic level, nor do they now.
A family member co-owns a business offering campaign treasurer services to Democratic candidates and the odd independent. He is very proud of her. He doesn't directly profit from her work and it doesn't affect his coverage. (He does not always favor her clients, though she might hesitate to take one that he truly hated.)
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)

15 Comments

A good family friend is a judge and knows Judge Chuang well. She is actually one of those judges you want to get – fair and listens to all sides. Her opponent appears to have one or two screws loose and he was rated unqualified. Please vote for Judge Chuang. No comment on others listed!

Pay to play is the correct term. Its also what the unions do. That is, if they pay you to run, they will expect you to play their games (and support their cause).

You should have your own slate “Greg Diamond’s Picks”. Then add the people you want. Its expensive though.

And PACs do this sort of thing all the time. A candidate in 2010 paid the Lincoln Club a boatload of money to join ($500?). Then he/she asked for their endorsement so they said yes and wrote a check back for…the same amount he/she paid.

Its a pile of poo. All of it. Taking money, accepting money, paying money, etc… Its all BS but how can you change it?

As a union-endorsed candidate, I’ll tell you “you will be our puppet” is not the message that I get from unions. They do want the opportunity to explain their positions, which is fine. (I’d give that opportunity to any side.) And when it comes to existential threats against unions, I’m pretty much always going to side with them because they are an important counter-weight to wealthy commercial interests. Where commercial interests are violating the law and thinking that they can get away with it, or treating workers terribly, probably the same. In less important conflicts, I’d take it case by case. That’s OK with them.

As for my having my own slate and charging for it — I’ve been offered lots of unethical ways to make money over the years; I’m not going to start taking them now.

How can I change it? I can refuse to participate in it and I can make fun of it publicly using the forums available to me, reducing the benefits of others’ participating in it. It’s not going to change everything, but it’s a start!

“And when it comes to existential threats against unions, I’m pretty much always going to side with them because they are an important counter-weight to wealthy commercial interests. Where commercial interests are violating the law and thinking that they can get away with it, or treating workers terribly, probably the same.”

How about public employee unions? I’d imagine that the argument here is a little different given that the commercial interest is represented by the state. What provides the check and balance here and how do we monitor that it’s running effectively and efficiently as possible?

Those are good questions. I think that some public employees unions (mostly in public safety) are doing quite well and I can easily imagine not supporting specific demands. But I would expect to stand with them on “existential threats,” like a city’s trying to bust them or abrogate pension obligations. For other public employee unions, composed largely of lower-paid workers, I see them as very similar to commercial unions. I think that their employees have a right to a reasonable living wage, safe working conditions, and the right to seek pensions that keep in a reasonable standard of living. What bothers me most is the self-dealing for a few lavish pensions for the most powerful and well-connected public employees; my guess is that you’ll feel the same way.

I wish I could improve on the simplest answer to your question — a transparent, intelligent, and honest political process — but that’s going to be the kernel of any honest answer. Pensions are another form of compensation; they are proper subjects for debate.

Counterpoint

Posted May 16, 2012 at 11:35 AM

Is the elected official the check and balance point? Something else? Not at all easy to answer.

Ultimately someone has to represent the public’s interest to balance out the union’s employee interest. I struggle to identify who this is.

I think chain of events in this discussion is around public employee unions contributing to elected officials and how this is a very ethical grey area when it comes to assuring that our check and balances work as they should.

Greg Diamond

Posted May 16, 2012 at 1:07 PM

Elected officials, bureaucrats, the media, etc., should represent the public’s interest.

I have no problem at all with honest Republicans playing the role of testing liberal claims of government need. At their best, this is what they do — much like public defenders testing the claims of district attorneys. It’s an important role in the ecology of politics, much like predators, scavengers, and fungus. But it should not involve demagoguery — and where it verges into ideological lunacy, like “people don’t need pensions,” I’m not going to respect it.

I wondered why Sebourn wasn’t listed along with Travis and Barry, and he tells me he’s pretty sure he is. He said more about it, and it was funny, but I know he doesn’t like us quoting him here without permission.

Everyone should try to remember these are just PAID advertisements. I imagine Bushala’s slate felt real ironic getting on this guide.

Well, the irony is because Bushala’s slate would be going after their pensions and pay – rightly or wrongly – wouldn’t they? And I’m not sure the merchants behind these COPS mailers understand that, or care.

I had thought about answering their questionnaire saying that I favored the elimination of public policing and implementation of a warlord system — n.b., I actually don’t — just to see if they’d still cash my check. I decided not to do so, for what now seem like probably inadequate reasons.

As a Congressional candidate for CD-39, I have been bombarded by a number of different voter guides offering to “endorse” in exchange for a fee. To even have a small statement on the ballots I was offered the space for a mere $2,500.00 and that my friend is paid twice if you get through the Open Primary. Everything in the election process is geared towards money, money, money! I refuse to play this game! If I don’t make it through the open primary this year, I will have two years to knock on doors and let my constituents know who I am.

And would you please tell me what is so difficult in listing a candidates website under their name, at least then a serious voter knows where to go for more info. I completed my mail in ballot sitting at my computer and looking up the candidates for their positions. Not difficult. It’s the least I can do to contribute to the democratic process.